This blog is dedicated to treating everyone - clients, prospects, friends, and family - as valuable partners. We should show them our gratitude through all our actions, including our marketing.

January 8, 2017

What Others Tell Us

When we find and
announce a new idea that we plan to implement, we start hearing the reactions
from our family, friends, and others. Some of those people are very supportive
and offer assistance and encouragement that we will succeed in following our
ideas. Others might bombard us with negative thoughts. The ones who tell us
that we cannot achieve success are people who might be afraid that we will be
successful.

When we publicize our business intentions we should do so
with our networking partners. These are people with whom we have built strong relationships
in which everyone can be honest and supportive. They must counsel us in a
manner that will provide what is best for our business, no matter what is said.
Truthful opinion is the watchword, and the intent should never be questioned.

We will know other people who will tell us that we are crazy,
misguided, and destined for failure, and that may be their personal opinion.
However, we must know the basis for that opinion. Is it their sincere opinion,
or is it slanted for some reason? Do they have a hidden agenda, or does their
background taint their advice? Are they being overly supportive with no solid
basis for their thoughts, or are they reluctant to see anyone rise above their
level of accomplishment, or even failure? Are they supportive or jealous?

Our networking partners should have a vested interest in our
business success. They may be our customers or clients, or we may be theirs. It
is therefore important that we keep each other functional in a successful
business status. If we do not have a customer based relationship, we still have
an interest in the success of each other since we should be valid referrals for
one other. That status allows us to show others how businesses should support
each other, a relationship that results in more opportunities.

Do our
relationships with others remain at the same status level forever? Of course
they don’t. They rise and fall in intensity continuously. They may be close, or
they may vary. We may interface with our networking partners frequently or very
seldom; we may send them referrals or introductions almost daily or just now
and then. These are living, breathing relationships in which each partner is there
when the other person needs help.

The basis for these
relationships is honesty build on solid ethics and genuine support for each
other. We have their best interest in mind, and we will provide input which is
blunt, direct, and intended to reflect what we believe to be what is best for
each other. That may not be what the other person wants to hear, but may be what
they need to hear.

Gratitude Marketing results in
business networking relationships. These relationships provide to us others who
will be there to provide honest and ethical support when we need it. We may not
hear what we want to hear, but we will be told what we should be told when this
advice is offered. That sharing and support should be answered with our
gratitude. Please leave me your
comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com,
or call me at 360-314-8691.